TIL Desk/National/New Delhi-A hawk-eye vigil is being kept across Delhi as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation from 17th century Red Fort on the 70th Independence Day.
Highlights of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech
* Today on the 70th Independence Day, I convey my greetings to 125 crore Indians & the Indian community living overseas.
* The onus is on 125 cr people of India to convert this ‘Swaraj’ into ‘Surajya’. From Parliament to panchayats, gram pradhans to the prime minister, everyone has to fulfill their responsibility. Only then will the dream of surajya come true.
* India’s age is not 70 years, but the journey post colonial rule for a better India is 70 year old.
* India faces a lot of challenges,today but I believe that 125 cr people of India have the ability to face and overcome these challenges.
* It is easy to keep account of the work done by the government, but it is difficult to have in-depth knowledge of those initiatives. Today, more than ‘Karya’, I want to talk about ‘Karya Sanskriti’ of the government.
* Today our government is enlivened with expectations. Today, as I speak to you from the ramparts of the Red Fort, it is only natural I give you an account of what the government has been doing. And I can give you a long list of what we have done. But if I tell you everything, I will have to speak from here for a week.
* March from self-governance to good-governance is a resolve of entire nation, it will need sacrifices.
* Today, in all the major government hospitals, online registration is available and medical records are also available online.
* People are scared of income tax authorities, particularly middle class families. We have to change this situation & I will change it. Earlier, getting a passport used to take months, today it takes just a couple of weeks. Transparency is very important to ‘Surajya’.
* There was a time when the central government was surrounded by allegations but now the government is surrounded by expectations. We have connected 70 crore Indians to Aadhaar and social security schemes.
* I want to change the lives of common people, I am committed to it.
* In last 60 years,14 crore were given gas connections,while my Govt provided gas connections to over 4 crore people in just 60 weeks.
* We have found 9,000 lower ranks in which there will not be any interviews, there will not be any need of references and middlemen. These appointments are being done on merit. Today the citizen is not happy with just the announcement of projects, the unveiling of plans. She / He wants to see the actual work being done on the ground
* The work of village roads started under Atal Behari Vajpayee ji, we have taken that forward. Earlier, we used to make 70-75 km of roads in a day. Today we make over 100 kms in a day.
* We take renewable and clean energy very seriously. Before our government, we used to lay 30,000-35,000 km in transmission lines in a year. Today our government lays 50,000 km in transmission lines per year.